Pamplona

If anyone out there is a big fan of vomit, piss, drunken madness, danger, unnecessary risks, adrenalin rushes, people being gored, and complete release of any inhibitions I strongly recommend Pamplona during the festival de San Fermin. Bulls running through the streets, people being thrown throughout a stadium by angry animals, an amazing 24/7 street party in the entire city, unabashid drunkness, piss, trash, glass, and nameless disgusting old guys with broken noses trying to steal your drinks are just a few of the highlights from a completely undescribably few days in Pamplona.

For those wondering, yes, I did run. No, I am not crazy. There are relatively safe routes of running with the bulls. The fact is that no one has died in the running since 1996. Yes, a few are injured every day of the running. This mostly consists of the drunks and those that run without any advice. There are much more dangerous things to do in a life time and much less great experiences.

On the topic of advice. For first timers and any timers, don't try the dead man's corner on mercedes. You can't win when a 2,000 pound animal is slipping around a tight corner and your body is underneath or in front of it. My advice for first timers is to go to the straight away right after dead man's corner. The bulls tend to stay to the right after the corner, so a nice run on the left is your best chance. Let the first pack pass and run like hell to make it into the ring before the second pack catches you in the entrance. There is no such thing as a sure thing when making the run, but most "experts" agree that this is the best low risk strategy for actually running with the bulls. When the bulls get close, hug a wall or hit the ground. If you hit the ground, stay down and don't get up until you are sure that everything has passed.

There are those, or course, who run the entire course before the bulls are even let out of the corral. This is not running with the bulls, this is running through a street before the bulls come. The crowd in the ring will boo you and throw whatever trash they have because you arrived before the bulls did. If you really want to run, you have to let the bulls pass you. It is a completely surreal experience which evokes pure instinctual survival traits. Those moments are hard to come by in the modern world and that is the reason people do it.

The party seen before and after the running is great for a day, but quickly became obnoxious to me. The smell of piss and rot, drunkards constantly hastling you, and endless noise preventing sleep wore on my nerves completely. Unless this is your thing, a nice, compact two night trip is what I would advise.

Alright, time for bed. Sorry for the typos, I'm a little bit drunk in a loud hostel in Barcelona.